Time and again, teachers' unions have been cast as the villain in the battle to improve public education in the U.S. The new contract awaiting approval from members of the Baltimore Teacher's Union, helps undercut that stereotype and puts the city in the lead as an innovator of public education.
Here's an excerpt:
"Still, the narrative that education reformers and teachers unions are eternal and implacable enemies is a hardy one, and one that Washingtonians in particular may well believe after four years of pitched battle between Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the D.C. teachers union. The intensity of the local battle might blind them to the experience of cities where the school district and the union have jointly embraced a reform agenda, even including a version of merit pay. And yet, such an agreement -- an impossibility, if we are to believe the conventional narrative -- was reached just two weeks ago in the faraway city of Baltimore."
Read the entire op-ed
here.